1 / 10 |
Born this day in 1620, Jean Picard was a French astronomer who conducted an arc measurement survey in 1669 by measuring one degree of latitude along the Paris Meridian using triangulation along 13 triangles stretching from Paris to the clocktower of Sourdon. He became the first person to accurately measure what we now know is 51,00,72,000 km2. What did he measure?

2 / 10 |
At 02:56 Coordinated Universal Time in 1969, Mare Tranquillitatis (The Sea of Tranquillity) became an important part of human history. It is made up of mostly basalt and has a slight bluish tint due to higher metal content and was chosen because it is relatively level. What happened at this place 46 years ago?

Answer : Neil Armstrong stepped out on the moon

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3 / 10 |
On July 21, 2011, NASA’s 32-year-long Space Shuttle program ended with the landing of Space Shuttle OV-104 on mission STS-135 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The 135th and final Space Shuttle mission was to deliver a payload to the International Space Station (ISS). The shuttle was named after a research ship, which itself was named after a mythical lost continent. What was the name of the shuttle?

4 / 10 |
This planet takes 165 Earth years to complete one full orbit around the sun and was discovered by a bunch of astronomers on the night of September 23-24 in 1846, based on mathematical calculations. Which planet is this?

5 / 10 |
Soviet cosmologist Igor Novikov put forward the existence of a hypothetical object as part of a solution to one of Einstein field equations. It is a region of spacetime and singularity that cannot be entered from the outside, although energy-matter, light and information can escape from it. A reference to a more famous object that does the exact opposite, by what name are these known?

6 / 10 |
Assembling of the ISS involved a lot of mechanical work, such as welding, which would be easy on Earth, but close to impossible in space. In the vacuum of space, it’s difficult to control shielding gases or generate heat using traditional welding methods. In reality, if two surfaces of the same metal are brought close to each other and pressed, there is an exchange of electrons and they get fused. What is the name of this method?

7 / 10 |
The region of space in which a mass’ magnetic field dominates is known as its magnetosphere. Earth’s field stretches 64,000 kilometres. The largest and strongest field belongs to a planet whose sphere is so big it could engulf the sun. If it was visible it would actually be larger than the moon in our sky. Which planet is this?

8 / 10 |
Lucy is a star in the constellation of Centaurus. which was first thought to be a dim white dwarf but it subsequently turned out to be incredibly dense, with the mass of the Sun crammed into an object only a third the diameter of Earth. Astronomers were able to study the vibrations of the star and discovered the reason for its extremely dense core, hence naming it ‘Lucy’. What had the star’s carbon core crystallised into?

Answer : Diamond (Lucy in the sky with diamonds)

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9 / 10 |
The time taken for this planet to revolve around the sun (on year on Earth) is only about 88 Earth days long. However, it has a very slow rotation around its own axis, hence each ‘day’ on this planet is 176 Earth days long. Which planet is this, where a day is twice as long as an year?

10 / 10 |
In 2009, astronomers were able to do a chemical analysis of the centre of the Milky Way and they discovered that there was a huge cloud of ethyl formate which slowly dispersed across the galaxy. This leads us to understand the prevalent smell and flavour of our solar system. What alliterative combination of a berry and a drink did astronomers use to describe the taste of the Milky Way?

1 / 10 |
On this day in 1891, Almon Strowger obtained a patent for the Strowger switch, which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching. He invented it after realising that he had lost a lot of business to a competitor because that person’s wife was a telephone operator who was routing calls away from Strowger. His invention dug the grave for manual telephone operators, effectively burying that profession. Fittingly, what was Strowger’s profession in his town?

2 / 10 |
Canadian physical education teacher James Naismith realised that his athletes lost their fitness during the winter months as all the grounds were frozen. To keep them fit, he invented an indoor sport using a ball and wicker buckets that the janitor used to gather peaches. After every point, they had to use a ladder to retrieve the ball. This was the birth of which global sport?

3 / 10 |
In 1902, Mary Anderson was in New York City on a snowy evening in a taxi. The ride was getting constantly delayed because the driver had to stop every few metres to manually do something in order to drive safely. She went back home, designed a simple device, applied for a patent and then offered it to companies, who all said it had ‘no commercial value’. What was this invention, which is now mandatory for all cars?

4 / 10 |
Emperor Napoleon realised that large armies required regular supplies of quality food, so he offered a huge cash award to anyone who could help with this. Nicolas Appert, a confectioner, realised that food cooked inside a jar and sealed well did not spoil. His invention won him the prize, and was the start of what is now a billion-dollar industry. What did he invent, which was scientifically proven by Louis Pasteur 50 years later?

5 / 10 |
Margaret E. Knight was working at the Columbia Paper Bag company when she realised that the bags they produced were weak and could not withstand pressure on the base, making them unsuitable to carry bulky items. She had an idea, and built a prototype to make a better bag. What did she invent, that is now used by every food delivery company?

6 / 10 |
New Zealander Harold Gillies joined the Royal Army Medical Corps following the outbreak of World War I, where he helped a French dentist repair broken jaws. Seeing him experiment with skin graft techniques, Gillies convinced the English army’s chief surgeon to establish a facial injury ward. While there, Gillies performed more than 11,000 operations, effectively establishing what branch of modern medicine that Sushruta was doing in ancient India?

7 / 10 |
In 1940, Candido _____ invented a hydrotherapy pump as a method of offering relief to his toddler son, who was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Seeing that regular immersion in a bath of hot, aerated water helped him, Candido invented a pump that could be used in a normal tub. This invention soon became a popular addition to bathrooms and hotels worldwide. What was Candido’s family name, which became associated with the invention?

8 / 10 |
Fritz Haber was a German chemist who, along with his assistant, invented the Haber-Bosch process, which is the catalytic formation of ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen. Along with BASF (a German company), he was able to scale this reaction to produce commercial quantities of ammonia. This was for a particular use, which brought about a revolution that now helps more than half the world. What was Haber’s invention used for?

9 / 10 |
Lyle Goodhue is credited with an invention that saved the lives of millions of soldiers from malaria during World War II. He developed an apparatus that allowed a fine spray of mosquito repellent to escape through a nozzle mounted on a container. What had he invented, that is now a billion-dollar industry by itself?

10 / 10 |
George Beauchamp was a guitarist who performed in bars and hotels. Hawaiian music became popular in the 1930s, and Beauchamp realised that listeners were not able to hear his slide guitar sound. He used a pair of horseshoe magnets to produce an electrical signal that could be amplified by a speaker. Known as the ‘Frying Pan’ because of its shape, what was this the very first example of?